5. Around Gourdon - The Bouriane

My real desire was to do a country walk, as I'd felt inspired by what I saw of the countryside from the train when travelling from Cahors to Gourdon, and it had made an impression on me. It was hilly and wooded with occasional clearings where the grass looked smooth and clipped in between the more wilder areas - perhaps sheep or some other animals helped keep it that short and tidy. Rich emerald manicured lawns interspersed the magical forested areas, and I just wanted to transport myself there and lose myself amongst all that beauty. I wasn't sure what the countryside immediately around Gourdon was like, but that was all I could explore in the limited time I had without a car.


I picked up a walking map from the tourist office and also bought a booklet about that area, which I later found out was called the Bouriane (sometimes seen it spelt Bourian). From what estate agents have told me, you really need a car to explore that area as there is no public transport in that part of the Lot. As I wanted to at least visit and register with a certain estate agent, who is located in a small village in the Bouriane, I looked it up myself and saw that just ONE bus goes there a day, and only from Cahors (even though it was closer to Gourdon). Oh well....I didn't actually have time to view any properties on that trip in any case as my flight was due back to London.



The tourist office gave me one of the shorter walking routes (in French) and said that all the walks were marked out and signposted in yellow on the trees anyway so I didn't really even need a guide. The walk was supposed to take 3 hours, leading to one of the villages and starting from a certain church. Well, I did alright finding the church I was meant to start the walk from, but I think the rain must have washed off all the yellow markings ages ago because I hardly found any.

This is the church from where the walk to the village of St Clair was to start (the other two photos above were a very pleasant walk down country lanes en route to it).

Now comes the tricky bit in the leaflet. It said -

1. Behind the chapel I'm to take the pedestrian route to the left.

It was a bit confusing at first which wall was the back of the chapel but eventually found a route to the left and even a marking on one of the trees, so I think I started off ok.

2. Then it says, 250m further on, take the path which goes up on the right. Well, I'm hopeless with metres and metric measurements so I didn't have a clue how far 250 metres was, but I did find a path on the right that had a yellow marking AND it was going up, so I think I was still on the right path at this stage.

Interesting rocks were lying on the surface. You probably can't see too clearly from the above photo, but they happened to be milky quartz.

Anyway, no more markings were ever seen again after this so somewhere soon after I must have taken a wrong turn.

Bear in mind that I didn't have a French dictionary on me, so was not familiar with all of the words.

In fact here is the next set of directions, in French:

3. Croiser la piste et longer une belle propriete sur la droite. (ok something about turn right)

Remonter ensuite le fond de la vallee jusqu' a une route goudronnee. Tourner a gauche (turn left somewhere) puis a droite (then right) et, a 200 metres environ emprunter le premier chemin a droite (first right after 200 metres) qui remonte vers Grapal Negre (is that a village or what? it doesn't say, and can't find Grapal Negre on the really unclear map).


Well, I passed some nice countryside on the way.

And finally realising I was lost, I decided to follow my own route from now on.
Passed a house where a vicious seeming dog started barking and following me, so I ended up turning round and heading back, soon finding myself back at the very same church from where I started. I met a French woman on the way back who was walking in the same direction as me so which chatted for a while in French, until we got to the church where she had been heading. I walked back to Gourdon town, thinking that this was the fastest 3 hour walk, done in less than an hour, and what a pity I couldn't find any more markings on the trees that would have helped make the route more obvious.

Still, I intend to return to the Bouriane again some day to do more walking, or maybe even cycling, and find some of these villages that are nestled within this beautiful countryside, this area has a special place in my heart.